The Collaborative for Humanistic Inquiry

Founded in 2024, the Collaborative (Center) of Humanistic Inquiry (CHI) at Saint Louis University brings together scholars across the humanities and humanistic social sciences to explore the richness of human experience across cultures and eras while positioning SLU as a regional, national and international research leader. Rooted in the College of Arts and Sciences, CHI fosters collaboration through scholarly research, artistic expression and cross-disciplinary dialogue.

CHI serves as a hub for Centers of Distinction and cultivates intellectual exchange through its Communities and Conversations initiatives. It supports faculty innovation through individual awards and fellowship programs, creating a dynamic environment that nurtures curiosity, embraces diverse perspectives and advances scholarly discovery.

Together, these efforts make CHI an incubator for new knowledge — advancing research that addresses complex global challenges and promotes human flourishing. Building on SLU’s distinctive strengths in digital scholarship, Catholic archives, transatlantic connections, manuscript studies, and healthcare ethics, CHI harnesses interdisciplinary collaboration to inspire meaningful engagement and action.

By strengthening partnerships within SLU and with institutions around the world, CHI advances inquiry into both the historical and contemporary human experience, helping to illuminate pathways toward a more empathetic, inclusive, and interconnected future.

Centers of Distinction

Albert Gnaegi Center for BioEthics

The Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics (CBE) at Saint Louis University is committed to excellence in teaching, service and research in health care. Engaging in secular and religious discourse, the center brings Catholic, Jesuit tradition into interdisciplinary philosophical and legal bioethics studies. For more information, contact the center at hce_info@slu.edu.

Center for Iberian Historical Studies

The Saint Louis University Center for Iberian Historical Studies (CIHS) promotes advanced research and scholarly conversations on any topic related to Iberian studies and analyzes them through a historical lens. The SLU center welcomes initiatives dealing with Iberian studies from late antiquity up to the present. We are particularly interested in promoting the study of the “First Iberian Globalization (Medieval period-1800s)” by focusing on the local, colonial, transregional and global history of Iberian interactions and/or exchanges. For more information, contact cihs@slu.edu.

Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) supports, coordinates and promotes the extraordinary array of scholars, students and resources devoted to medieval and early modern research at SLU. One of the largest in the U.S., the center houses more than 60 full-time faculty members and numerous students, fellows and visiting scholars. By supporting students, conferences, speakers, fellowships, library acquisitions and professorships, the center enriches the intellectual environment for medievalists and early modernists on campus and around the world. For more information, contact cmrs@slu.edu.

Center for Research on Global Catholicism

The Center for Research on Global Catholicism (CRGC) at Saint Louis University supports scholarship at the nexus of Catholicism and culture, providing robust programming that promotes interdisciplinary research, collaboration, and methodological innovation. For more information, contact crgc@slu.edu.

Walter J. Ong, S.J., Center for Digital Humanities

The Saint Louis University Walter J. Ong Center for Digital Humanities (OngCDH) is a multidisciplinary center that promotes creativity, innovative scholarship, excellence in teaching, and service to the community through fostering collaborative engagement with the digital humanities. The center supports faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences by organizing and sponsoring conferences, lectures, workshops and seminars; providing individual mentorship and guidance; and facilitating access to information resources. OngCDH is dedicated to diversity, equity and social responsibility.

Projects

Lived Religion in a Digital Age (COLR)

COLR grows out of the Lived Religion in the Digital Age project (2018-2024) to enrich, expand and advance the study of lived religion at Saint Louis University. The mission of COLR is to provide institutional support to continue the study of lived religion and an institutional structure for interfacing with lived religion in the St. Louis metropolitan area while broadening the focus beyond the periodization of "the digital age." For more information, contact livedreligion@slu.edu.

Center for Religious and Legal History

The Saint Louis University Center for Religious and Legal History (CRLH) is devoted to advancing the study of the historical relationships between religion and law. Regardless of confession or tradition, the center assumes that immersion in the historical context and development of systems of religious law and the history of the relationship between law and religion leads to deeper understanding and wiser action. Consistent with SLU's Jesuit mission and identity, the center proceeds from the principle that good, truth-seeking historical research encourages thoughtful and informed engagement in the present with God and humankind. Contact the Center for Religious and Legal History at atria.larson@slu.edu.

CREST (Culture, Religion, Ethics, Science, Technology)

CREST (Culture, Religion, Ethics, Science, Technology) at Saint Louis University seeks to integrate humanistic interdisciplinary scholarship with innovations in science and technology for the service of humanity. For more information, contact crest@slu.edu.

Communities and Conversations

Matteo Ricci Lecture

This annual lecture is named for Matteo Ricci, S.J., who became influential in China as a leading intellectual in Beijing and lived and wrote there from 1582-1610. For over a decade, Saint Louis University has welcomed leading scholars in the history of Sino-European interactions. 

Silk Roads Series

This lecture series serves as an interdisciplinary forum for researchers working on the history of premodern Eurasia. The series features work by SLU faculty and students as well as invited guests.

The Matteo Ricci Lecture and Silk Roads Series are organized by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES).